DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - New European targets for
cutting emissions of greenhouse gases are a strong signal to
other countries to reduce their carbon output, the U.N.
environment chief said on Friday.

The European Commission's plan to cut emissions
unilaterally by 20 percent by 2010, announced this week, is
"quite far-reaching," Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations
Environment Program, said at the annual meeting of the World
Economic Forum.

"I think the signal value of the European decision cannot
be underestimated for other parts of the world," Steiner told
Reuters.

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Some environment groups -- including the Nobel
Prize-winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) -- have criticized the European proposals for not going
far enough.

"If you take the IPCC recommendation seriously then 30
percent would have been a more credible target," Steiner said.
"But a credible target versus a politically feasible target is
always in a sense the tension that is there.

"I think given the degree to which other parts of the world
are willing to make firm commitments, this is a significant
commitment. And it doesn't preclude the 30 percent," he said.

The next big step will be the United States, Steiner said,
especially as whoever wins this year's presidential election is
expected to be more willing to fight climate change than the
George W. Bush administration.

"I think in the U.S. what will be a key determinant is
public opinion and how business will shape the sense of
possibility," Steiner said.

"Here you have a potential complicating factor, the
recession, slowdown prospects. And is this going to weaken the
political resolve and also the business rationale for acting on
climate change?"

But fighting climate change means more efficient use of
energy, which in itself could help the economy, Steiner said.

For full coverage, blogs and TV from Davos, see:
http://uk.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/worldeconomicforum2008